Visions & Views from a Visiting Voyeur

Loud mouth insight to the nothing and nowhere. Deep thoughts and questions that have no where else to go...

Today is the day that is honored as Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday. He helped to lead a great movement and was the spokesperson for much needed change in America. I consider MLK to be a hero of mine.

Though it is his birthday, I thought instead of honoring him with mention of the “I had a dream” or the many things he as well as many others did to push civil rights to the forefront, I would instead talk about a recent documentary I watched. It is called “Scandalize My Name: Stories from the Blacklist”.

This story, narrated by Morgan Freeman, talks about the days right after WWII during the big “Red Scare”. Men like O'Neal and Canada Lee who stood up for the rights of African Americans and humans in general and were put on the “list”. I remember in part of the movie Jackie Robinson goes before the HUAC committee. Jackie Robinson went before the panel to defend the African American race. He stated that if Paul Robeson was a communist and had said or implied what he was accused of that he didn't represent those of his race. That was aired. In fact I tried to find a clip to put in here and couldn't find one with even that part of his discussion. What wasn't aired, however, was this part of his statement:

Just because Communists kick up a big fuss over racial discrimination when it suits their purposes, a lot of people try to pretend that the whole issue is a creation of Communist imagination. But they are not fooling anyone with this kind of pretense, and talk about “Communists stirring up Negroes to protest,” only makes present misunderstanding worse than ever. Negroes were stirred up long before there was a Communist Party, and they’ll stay stirred up long after the party has disappeared–unless Jim Crow has disappeared by then as well.

Very powerful words I think. Men and women were turned away from jobs and treated like criminals because they stood up for the right to be treated as equals and gain the rights that were established long ago.

So I say three cheers for MLK and for those men and women who went against the odds for what they believed in and changed the world. I don't see how I would be here today speaking so freely seeing the wonder and beauty in how each person is fearfully and wonderfully made. Like snowflakes no two are exactly alike and we are the better for it.

Ta ta for now.

1 comments:

I´ve read and seen a lot of documentaries of that period and it was really tough times for those who belived in a batter world. Sometimes I think we´ve come a long way since then, but sometimes....
Check out my blog today! I´ve given You an Award!
Christer.

Who is the better cook?

About this blog

This blog is a rambling of different thoughts, subjects and ideas. The world has many things to offer and what might be contained on theses pages is anyones guess. Enjoy.

Subscribe Now: standard

Total Pageviews

Followers

FEEDJIT Live Traffic Map

Counter

FEEDJIT Live Traffic Feed